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Radio News History – A Legacy of Trust

radio news history

Join us in an eleven part series which explores radio news history over the past century. Despite its rise and fall, radio news continues to be an important part of our lives. 

I have been a radio news junkie for decades. But two things happened last year that caused me to question my sanity. To begin with, I got totally fatigued by coverage of Donald Trump and fake-news. Then, in November 2016 Oxford Dictionary named post-truth as its word of the year. Post-truth is an adjective defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”.

How did we get here? I used to trust news.

There are four main platforms for news: TV, radio, newspaper and online. Radio reaches more people than any other media platform. Believe it or not, the news-talk-information format rivals music for attracting listeners. Radio news has a huge impact on culture, and has been an instrument of social cohesion. While television is the most popular source of news, radio has held its own over the years for most demographics. It rivals newspapers among seniors, and is close to online for young adults.

At its height, radio was the primary timely source of news in democracies. Whether delivered by government monopoly or regulated private broadcasters, it was reliable for all listeners of all ages. This 1958 promotional film from the National Association of Broadcasters tells the story very well.

Radio News History Overview

In this series about radio news history, we will start at the beginning. What is news? Over many years, humans have traveled along an arc of inquisitiveness about current events: ask, read, listen, watch, search. Radio began as a medium for sending messages from point to point, evolving into broadcasting around 1920. There was actually very little news on broadcast radio at first. This changed during the 1930’s when radio fought hard against newspapers for the right to provide news. Radio news dominance peaked during World War II, and began to decline with the shift to television. The growth in talk radio since the 1980’s has shifted radio news from a dominant position of trust towards the emotional engagement of post-truth.

Why and how did all these things happen? Stay tuned.

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